


Secrets, Pain, and Love

by daydreamingstoryteller



Series: Mel's Olivarry Week 2017 [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Day 5, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Barry, M/M, Olivarry Week 2017, Secret Identity, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 14:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11511444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydreamingstoryteller/pseuds/daydreamingstoryteller
Summary: Barry and Oliver are dating. No one else knows this. Barry, Cisco and Caitlin are superheroes. No one else knows this either other than Team Flash. Oliver, Sara and Laurel also are heroes but only Team Arrow knows this.In the end everyone figures everything out in the most horrible way possible. And Barry just wants the pain to stop.Written for Olivarry Day 5: Secret Relationship AU





	Secrets, Pain, and Love

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is super late but the reason for that is that this was rewritten two/three times cus i couldn't get it to fit together in a way i liked....  
> Anyway, this is the longest fic i've ever written and I hope that that makes up for the lateness and the mistakes.

This was totally not how Barry thought his day would go. But honestly, nothing ever really goes his way. If he was just a CSI at CCPD, then maybe he wouldn’t have this much trouble. However, that wasn’t the case because Barry Allen wasn’t just a CSI. He was also Central City’s favourite – or at least one of their favourite – superhero: The Flash.

 

\--~--

 

It all started with the particle accelerator explosion that happened almost two years ago. Barry Allen got hit by lightning and was placed in a coma for about nine months. When he finally woke up, he had powers. Not just lame powers either. He had cool super powers.

The first few days upon waking up, Barry was freaking out internally. He didn’t know who to talk to about his situation. He didn’t want to risk Joe and Iris worrying even more about him and he didn’t want to bother his friends either. So for the first few days, he kept the secret. He would have gone longer, if only he didn’t accidentally faint in front of his friends during their lunch date.

When he woke up from that, he found that he was in a med lab of some sorts. His friends, Cisco and Caitlin immediately rushed to him and explained what happened. Apparently he was in _the_ Star Labs. Cisco had inherited it after the owner Dr. Harrison Wells had passed away during the accelerator explosion. Why did a world-renowned scientist leave his entire lab to his employee - no one knew.  His friends were thankful he did though because they had started to use it as a base of operations for their extra-curricular activities.

That day, Barry Allen found out that not only did he have powers – and side effects like the high metabolism - but that he wasn’t the only one. His friends also had powers. Cisco had powers that could alter the vibrations around him and open portals apparently, and Caitlin had ice powers kind of like Jack Frost or Elsa. To top that off, his friends told him that they’d been secretly fighting crime these past few months – stopping other metahumans from hurting innocent lives.

It took a while for Barry to let everything they told him sink in. Once he did, he found out that he wasn’t really scared of what this meant. He felt more excited than anything else. He turned to Cisco and Caitlin and asked “Do you mind if I joined you guys in this whole superhero stuff?”

Cisco just laughed and clapped him in the back while Caitlin told him in a stern voice that he’d need training first. All in all, from that moment on Barry Allen’s life changed entirely.

 

\--~--

 

Now, almost fourteen months from that day, so much has changed. The team – called Team Flash because Barry took to being the leader pretty quickly – is now seven people strong. With Wally, Joe’s long-lost son being another speedster, and Iris, Eddie and Joe, the team has become so much more efficient in what they do. They’ve also went from being secret vigilantes to celebrated superheroes in the City. I guess stopping a Godzilla gorilla attack does that for you.

Anyway, now the team operates daily, stopping not just meta attacks, but criminals as well. Usually Vibe, The Flash and Kid Flash go out in the field while Frost, the Detective Duo and the Journalist stay in the Labs or do recon work. They’ve managed to create a system that works most of the time. On the occasional times that they’re out of their depth they call on their superhero friends to help. Most of the times, it’s either Pied Piper or Team Arrow.

Pied Piper is a part time rogue who lives in CC. They usually ask him to help if they need his sound expertise but otherwise, Team Arrow is on call for any major catastrophe. Likewise, if Star City needed extra hands on deck Team Arrow contacts Team Flash. Both teams have built a rapport with each other over the past few fights but the funny thing is they don’t know their secret identities.

Until that is, that one fateful day.

 

\--~--

 

Oliver Queen was a billionaire yes. Everyone who’s anyone knows this. However, only a select few know that he is also the ever elusive Green Arrow - leader of Team Arrow. After he’d returned from three years lost on an island, with everyone thinking he was dead, he’d donned a green hood and started to fight crime in Starling City (as it was known back then).

He did it because his father had made him promise to be better than he was. Hence, to honour his father, Oliver Queen became a masked vigilante in his city – not his best idea but he doesn’t regret all the good that’s come out of it. What started as a solo gig quickly grew. In the two to three years of his vigilante work, he’s amassed a sort of team and support for himself. The team was the made up mostly of his personal family or friends. Laurel and Sara were Oliver’s high school friends and the rest of the team consisted of his sister, her boyfriend, Sara’s girlfriend Felicity and his family bodyguard Diggle.

If you asked Oliver when the team had formed, he wouldn’t exactly be able to pinpoint an exact time or date. He just knew that sometime between losing Tommy and dealing with the aftermath of the Undertaking, he’d looked up and realized that his friends were there with helping hands. Since then, the team has been a constant strength in his life and Oliver never wanted to lose them. Besides, they were the only ones to know about his secret identity as the Green Arrow.

No one else knew because it was too dangerous for them. Oliver knew that being associated with the Arrow meant trouble for anyone he cared about. So he hid his identity from everyone else except the team. He ~~wanted~~ needed to protect them and this was the only way he knew how. And if that meant that he had to keep on lying to his mom, stepdad and boyfriend, he would.  

But sometimes, Oliver forgets that all secrets must be revealed at some point.

 

\--~--

 

In the end, it came down to a simple fight with a crazy army of metas.  A warm Sunday morning had drastically turned sour when an army of meta humans led by a telepathic, started to attack Central City. The entire army had somehow managed to escape from Iron Heights that very morning and had headed straight to the city to wreak havoc.

Cisco, Caitlin and Barry were having their monthly meet up with their high school mates – Oliver, Laurel and Sara from Star City- when news of the escaped metas reached them. Reports were coming in from downtown of seemingly random attacks. Witnesses described that the metas seemed to be under some sort of control and just attacking civilians and destroying property.

The moment the supertrio heard the news, they excused themselves from their Star City friends. Lying about needing to find their family and make sure they were safe, the trio ran outside CC-Jitters and into a back alley before Barry ran them to Star Labs. Figuring that this was an all-hands-on-deck situation, Cisco contacted Team Arrow and Piper. Thankfully they were nearby and were on-route already. The three Central friends suited up and arrived downtown just as the police finished removing civilians from the area. The Captain informed the team that they’d set up a perimeter around the area in a five block radius.

Nodding to the officers, Team Flash planned a battle strategy. Just as they were about to leap in, Team Arrow arrived on scene.

“Team Arrow here. Green Arrow, and both Canaries present. Spartan and Arsenal won’t be able to make it this time.”  Arrow stated.

“It’s ok. Frost, Vibe and Flash present on our side. Piper is ..” the Flash started.

“Piper in position on the rooftops.” A new voice chimed into the comms.

“Ok good. Piper you’re our eyes for now. We’ve managed to clear the surrounding area of civilians. We need to know what the metas’ plan is before we can engage.” Vibe commanded.

“We have a theory that Plaker- the telepathic man- took control over the entire meta population in Iron Heights and broke them out. We think his game plan here is vengeance. He’s most likely here for the lawyers of that firm in that building there and that these attacks are just distractions or bait.” Frost added, pointing to a Law firm building a block down. Clearly the metas seemed to be moving towards that location.

“Makes sense. The metas are only targeting that one building and it looks like people they’re after are still inside. I can see that most of the metas are surrounding that building but staying outside, destroying property. Only one guy is going in.” Piper answered back, keeping watch of the meta army from up high.

Realizing that they were right all along, both teams discussed their plan of attack. The targets, whoever they were, were most likely still inside. Hence, the first priority was getting them out. The rest of the team will handle the metas as Vibe and Flash go in and get all the civilians out safely. Piper was their look out from the rooftops and he was also their best bet at getting the metas out of their trance.

Finalizing the plan, everyone took off. First, the team swooped in to fight off the meta army who were continuing to destroy property. Being controlled made them more susceptible to sneak attacks and within the first few minutes, at least five of the metas were tied up or knocked out. However, apparently Plaker’s emotions influenced those under his control. The moment the Flash and Vibe started to save civilians and get them out, Plaker’s emotions heightened and even the five metas that were already taken care off started to wake up again. Thankfully, Spartan and Arsenal arrived in the nick of time to help.

For the next fifteen minutes, both teams battled the metas off relentlessly. It was an uneven match with five non-powered heroes and two metas against about a dozen metas under mind control. While the fight was going on, on the ground, Piper was trying to find the right frequency of sound waves to disrupt the telepathic link between the army and Plaker.

Another five minutes passed before he found the right frequency and as everyone else covered their ears, Piper broadcast that sound wave out loud to the ground below. The metas started to clutch their heads in pain and scream as they slowly dropped unconscious one by one. Immediately, Vibe opened a portal to Iron Heights and vibed all the criminals there he was sure everyone was secured in a cell with power damping cuffs, he returned to the field.

While the escaped metas were secured, and the civilians in the law firm were safe and far away from the Plaker, The Flash was still inside the building fighting the telepath. Before the others could go in and lend a hand though, the three-story building began to shake. Within seconds, the entire structure had collapsed in on itself and all that lay there was rubble.

“Flash!” Frost shouted into her comms. Everyone winced at her icy pitched scream. Yet, they ignored it, in favour of waiting to hear a response.

A minute passed. “Flash… what’s going on?” Arrow questioned. Still no response. Just as the team started to panic, a cough sounded.

“Flash…here…Plaker - *cough* he… he was also telekinetic. He…destroyed the building.” Flash answered.

As everyone else focused on what he was saying, Arrow froze. That voice was different. It wasn’t the voice modulated voice of the Flash that he’d come to recognize but….

“Was? Flash what happened?” One of the Canaries cried.

“He’s…dead. He wanted to get revenge…and he...brought the building down with him in it. I’m-”

“What happened to your voice?” Arrow cut in uncaringly.

“Wha? My modulator broke…I’m under a *cough* piece of the roof. Pretty su-“

“Barry?” a small voice whispered throughout the comms.

Every other person listening in on that line – which was everyone -halted mid thought. They turned to look at the person who’d said that. The Arrow.

Team Flash’s faces paled.

“How do you know that name?” Vibe asked flatly. His walls went up and he glared at Arrow.

“Oh my gosh” The Black Canary gasped as she brought a hand to cover her mouth.

“Are you…are..Barry?” The Arrow asked again, ignoring everything around him. He had to know. He had to _know._

“Yea. It’s uh..Barry.” ~~The Flash~~ Barry responded, unsure of what was going on and yet terrified about his identity being revealed to others.

“Oh god” Arrow sighed in disbelief and anguish. It was like his worst nightmare had come true but it was so much worse. His suit felt suffocating. He quickly ripped his cowl and mask down and took a deep breath. “Barry it’s me. It’s Oliver. I’m the Green Arrow.”

To say that Team Flash was surprised would be an understatement. Immediately, Vibe and Frost yelled, “Ollie?” “Oliver?!” at the same time.

That’s when Oliver turned to look at the other two members of Team Flash. ‘ _If Barry was the Flash, then maybe Frost and Vibe are people that I know too?’_ He wondered to himself. He got his answer when both heroes removed their masks and showed him their faces of disbelief.

For an entire minute, there was utter chaos as both teams got themselves reacquainted with one another and their civilian identities. There may or may not have been some serious shouting and curse words but it’s best to let that be.

Just as everyone had calmed down, Barry’s voice came back on the comms. “Oliver…” The pained gasp he let out immediately silenced the rest as they remembered that they had more pressing issues to deal with.

“I’m here Bare. I’m here. We’ll get you out.” Oliver reassured him out loud, while inside he was frightened to death.

“Yea.. uh that’s good. But please hurry. I think, I think I have a metal bar in me.” Barry whispered shakily.  And at that moment, Oliver’s heart skipped a beat as his entire body froze.

 

\--~--

 

“What?” came Caitlin’s voice through his comms. Barry winced. He’d forgotten that the doctor was also listening in. He had lost his concentration when Oliver revealed himself to be the Green Arrow.

“Yea… Cait. I can’t feel my legs.” Barry cried as he tried to focus on moving his legs again. All he ended up with was pain from his ribs. He was pretty sure most of them were broken.

“Bare….” Oliver’s voice sounded again in his ear. While it hurt Barry to hear the amount of pain and fear in his voice, Barry was just glad to have him here. In case. Just in case.

“I’m okay Ollie. Just, I think a metal bar went through one of my legs. It’s fine really. It’ll heal pretty fast. I’m going to be okay.” Barry didn’t know when he went from being the one in need of help to being the one who was trying to keep his ~~friend~~ boyfriend – that no one else knew about -  calm.

“Barry, this is Sara. Just hold on okay? We’ll get you out of there fast. We just need to pinpoint your location and then we’ll help you out okay?” Sara’s voice chimed in, voice still modulated by her suit.

“Yea. I’ll do my best. I can’t move anything right now so I think I’ll just stay here for you guys.” Barry tried to joke. Except, it didn’t help anyone and he knew it.

The pain from his ribs shot up through him again. Barry bit his lip hard as he tried his best to muffle his scream. He knew that if Oliver heard him in pain, he’d just lose his cool even more and get worried. Oliver was overprotective like that.

Trying to ignore the burning pain in his side, Barry closed his eyes and took measured breaths. He distracted himself by thinking about the events that had occurred that day. Mostly going over the new information about Team Arrow and trying to digest it.

It had been a few months since Oliver and Barry had started dating. They had gotten together after one night, after their monthly meetups, when they’d been the last of their friends to go home. Oliver walked Barry to his apartment and crashed on the couch when Barry realized it was way too late for Oliver to go back to Starling.

So, the two high school friends had stayed up watching stupid romcoms and subsequently fell asleep on the couch. The morning after, Oliver had surprised Barry by asking him out on a date. That was that.

They’d decided early on to keep the relationship a secret from everyone else. Oliver said he’s wanted to do it to protect him from the public eye and the tabloids and paparazzi. Barry had gone with it, because he never wanted any one of his villains to go after Oliver for revenge or leverage against The Flash. Now that Barry thinks about it, Oliver probably wanted to keep Barry a secret for the very same reason as well. God knows how much Oliver hates putting people in danger. And speaking of Oliver….

“Barry! Bare come on talk to me honey. I need you to say something please.”

Oliver’s worried tone jerked Barry out from his thoughts. How long had he been lying here? Barry couldn’t exactly remember what was going on for a while.

“Honey please…” Oliver’s voice begged again.

“Hmm? Ollie?” Barry spoke. Or at least, he tried to. That was when he realized that he was feeling extremely tired. The pain in his ribs was now more of a dull throb and even though Barry still couldn’t feel his legs, he felt a bit more at ease. It was as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Oh thank god!” Oliver sighed in relief. “Bare, just hold on okay? Stay awake for me and we’ll get you out of there soon. We’re almost there.”

“How…long?” Barry struggled to find his voice. Every breadth he took felt like it was suffocating him from the inside out. That was probably because of the pain and blood loss he guessed.

“You’ve been in there for about thirty-five minutes now. We just need you to hold on for ten more okay?”

“Hm. Will *cough* try Ollie.”

“Yea honey, just ten more minutes. Just stay with me until then.”

“Ollie – talk..to me?”

“Yea sure. So, you know how our six-month anniversary is coming up next week right? I was thinking we could get some pizza and catch that new sci-fi movie you’d wanted to watch. Now that I know you’re the flash, we could actually go to coast city for Pizza since that’s the best pizza place right…”

Oliver never rambles. He isn’t the kind of person who talks a lot. But for Barry, _his_ Barry, he talked non-stop. He continued talking to Barry about their upcoming dates as everyone else was working on getting Barry out. Oliver had wanted to help but in his state, no one thought he should. So he was forced to wait and watch from the sidelines.

Barry on the other hand, was trying so hard not to fall into unconsciousness because he knew that if he did, he wouldn’t wake up. So he kept listening to Oliver talk about dates and tried to keep breathing. However, almost eight minutes later, Barry knew he’s reached the end of his line.

“Ollie. I can’t.” Oliver halted in his speech. “I’m so-sorry Ollie. I can’t … hold on.”

“No! No no honey please. We’re almost there. We’ve got you. Okay? I’ve got you. Please stay with me Bare.”

“Sss-sorry Ollie. I’m just glad…that we’d- that we’d gotten the time. I loved being with you…”

“Barry!”

“I…love you.” Barry breathed out in a whisper as his eyes rolled back and his body went limp. The last thing he thought was of his brilliant superhero boyfriend and his blue eyes.

 

\--~--

 

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” The sound of a heart rate monitor woke Barry up slowly. When he fought the struggle and finally opened his eyes, he saw white. Blinking to clear his vision, he recognized the white as being the Star Labs’ ceiling.  

Barry briefly closed his eyes as he recalled the events of the day. He didn’t remember much aside from the fight and the building collapsing on him and his –

Immediately Barry tried sitting up and trying to feel his legs. He ‘tried’ because as soon as he lifted his shoulders of from the bed, two hands were on his chest, gently pushing him back down.  Barry looked up to see his boyfriend looking back at him.

He looked into those big blue eyes that were now red tinged and wet with tears. Seeing Oliver like this physically hurt Barry even more than the broken ribs. He opened his mouth to reassure Oliver that he was alright when Oliver’s hand grasped his own. Oliver squeezed the speedster’s hand slightly to tell him to shut up. He looked at Barry’s body and then looked into his eyes as he uttered the next words.

“I love you too.”

The words were like music to Barry’s ears. His face split into a beautiful smile as he squeezed Oliver’s hand back.

“I love you too honey but please for the love of god, don’t ever ever do that to me again.” Oliver said, his voice serious as his eyes stayed moist.

“I know that you can’t help it, and that being a hero – being in this line of work means that there’ll always be close calls but Bare I can’t –“ Oliver broke off to take a deep breath.

“I can’t lose you. Especially not when I’m also out there in the field by your side and have to hear you- _die_.” He choked out. He absentmindedly started to run his hands through Barry’s fingers.

“I know that we can’t help it and that we have so much to talk about but I just needed you to hear this. You have to know this. I love you Bare. You almost died without me ever saying them to you and I won’t allow that to happen again. I’ve loved you ever since that night at homecoming dance back in high school and I need you to know that.”

Overwhelmed by Oliver’s words, Barry just nodded at him as tears flowed down his face. Oliver gently held Barry’s face in his hands as he continued on. “We have so much to talk about when you get better. Not just about the superhero thing too. I’m pretty sure there’ll be questions and a grilling session about our relationship and the fact that we didn’t tell any of them. So I need you to get better so you can speed us away when the questions get awkward okay?”

Barry just smiled and nodded again. This time, too tired to answer as the pain started to set in again.

“Good. Now go back to sleep Barry. I’ll be right here when you wake up,”

Knowing that this time, he’s not in any danger of dying, Barry gave in to Oliver and drifted off to sleep.

He slept soundly as he dreamed of emerald archers and pizza dates in Coast City.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this needs more Olivarry to it but right now i don't have time to edit or write. :/  
> Anyway, thank you guys for reading and I do have fics planned for Day 6 and 7 but i'm afraid I'm out of town for the next 4 days so I'll only be posting them late next week. 
> 
> Thank you guys for sticking with me this Olivarry Week and comments are always appreciated!!
> 
> (also idk why i chose the name Plaker but i just rolled with it lol)


End file.
